1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular to a method and apparatus for managing data. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method, apparatus, and computer implemented instructions for removing specific personal or confidential information from a server.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet, also referred to as an “internetwork”, is a set of computer networks, possibly dissimilar, joined together by means of gateways that handle data transfer and the conversion of messages from protocols of the sending network to the protocols used by the receiving network (with packets if necessary). When capitalized, the term “Internet” refers to the collection of networks and gateways that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols.
The Internet has become a cultural fixture as a source of both information and entertainment. Many businesses are creating Internet sites as an integral part of their marketing efforts, informing consumers of the products or services offered by the business or providing other information seeking to engender brand loyalty. Many federal, state, and local government agencies are also employing Internet sites for informational purposes, particularly agencies, which must interact with virtually all segments of society such as the Internal Revenue Service and secretaries of state. Providing informational guides and/or searchable databases of online public records may reduce operating costs. Further, the Internet is becoming increasingly popular as a medium for commercial transactions.
Currently, the most commonly employed method of transferring data over the Internet is to employ the World Wide Web environment, also called simply “the Web”. Other Internet resources exist for transferring information, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Gopher, but have not achieved the popularity of the Web. In the Web environment, servers and clients affect data transfers using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a known protocol for handling the transfer of various data files (e.g., text, still graphic images, audio, motion video, etc.). The information in various data files is formatted for presentation to a user by a standard page description language, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In addition to basic presentation formatting, HTML allows developers to specify “links” to other Web resources identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URL is a special syntax identifier defining a communications path to specific information. A URL identifies each logical block of information accessible to a client, called a “page” or a “Web page”. The URL provides a universal, consistent method for finding and accessing this information, not necessarily for the user, but mostly for the user's Web “browser”. A browser is a program capable of submitting a request for information identified by an identifier, such as, for example, a URL. A user may enter a domain name through a graphical user interface (GUI) for the browser to access a source of content. The domain name is automatically converted to the Internet Protocol (IP) address by a domain name system (DNS), which is a service that translates the symbolic name entered by the user into an IP address by looking up the domain name in a database.
There are a number of ways to find out what Web pages have been viewed in a browser. For example, a disk cache is present in which various files, such as graphic images, are stored with respect to a Web page. Additionally, a history list is often recorded to identify URLs visited by a user. Also, a location list containing URLs entered by the user is present. Other types of disk caches include cookies for various Web sites, which are stored in a cookie file for the browser. This recorded information is an example of a history that may be recorded for a Web page received by a user or a Web site visited by the user. These histories also may contain confidential or personal information.
In some instances, a user may desire to prevent others from identifying confidential or personal information that may be located in history. Currently, a user is able to remove this information from the data processing system at which the user is located. As recognized by the present invention, the user is unable to control the storage or retention of personal or confidential information on a server. For example, if a user purchases an item from a Web site, the user may provide a credit card number as well as a name and address to facilitate the purchase and delivery of the item. Currently, the user is unable to remove this information from the server. As a result, the user is unable to control who has access to personal or confidential information.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method and apparatus for removing information from a server.